Wildrun: Growing Turmoil

[Hemnon]

Rurik

Rurik hefted the girl up, showing off that great strength of his and let her cry out. it's good she was responsive like this.
"Do you know where they are?" Rurik responded in return to the young girl "Are they hiding somewhere around here as well? Oh and please remain calm, I am gonna call over the rest of the folk in my party, alright? They're all good people." Rurik continued on and then took a deep breath before bellowing loud enough for the others to hear him, but not so loud that he yelled himself hoarse or anything like that. "EVERYONE! I'VE FOUND A SURVIVOR!"

[Devonkm]

The little girl jumps a little at the bellow, but then relaxes again into Rurik's shoulder and arms.

"They are hiding in the Grove. My pa built us a really nice tree house way up high. My cousin Violet and my sister Lilly and I were having a camp out last night. We heard the wolves howling and the animals yelling, and were to scared to move. I peaked out through the window and saw a real scary looking man with horns walking through the yard, with big wolves and little green men."

She continues "I am the oldest, so this morning I went to get Pa because Lilly was to afraid to come out, but I couldn't find anyone. I saw the animals..." she stifles another cry, "and ran back to the tree fort. I tried to get them to come with me but they said they would not come out. We have enough food up there for a day or so, so I told them I would go get Violet's dad in Oshawan falls, and told them not to come down. I needed to be brave, ya know... but I when I got to the gate I thought I saw the horned man again, and ran and hid in the field, and fell. I hurt my leg."

[Illven]

Stephanie winces, as she starts to return to the group.

There was a killing frezny in the stables, that's why there's no animals, dozens of goats and sheep have been slaughtered. She reports in.

[Kyrrh]

Caeleth rushes over to Rurik and the girl in time to hear her explanation, though her last few words make her very self-conscious of her own horns. "It's okay, sweetheart - let me see your leg."

Spoiler: Rolls

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Can I roll medicine to see if I can patch her up, or should I use a spell? If a roll works, (1d20+2)[10].

Also, do I know anything about the horned man? History: (1d20+4)[22]

[Devonkm]

Spoiler: History

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There are various creatures and humanoids that have horns. Some can appear as human.

As Caeleth runs up to the little girl, she instinctively looks towards the soft female voice, and immediately reacts by trying to simultaneously hide in Rurik's arms, and get as far away from Caeleth as possible.

"Don't let him disappear me! Don't let him! You said you would help me! Please Sir PLEEEAASSEE!" and starts wailing once again.

[zylodrizzt]

Blastigar Kaboom Spoiler: statistics Show ac:15 Hp: 8 Effects: none Passive perception:14 Stealth:12 Disguise: 12 bush Any other useful statistics I should provide? When rurik bellows he Blastigar heads back to report. He comes back Still hiding because what if rurik did attract had news. "Rurik jeez quit bellowing your gonna attract unwated attention. Blastigar says from out of the middle of some grass. He thinks on how the child just freaked out again which means that something happened and likely that was danger or rurik scared her again. Either way He wasn't willing to cause more distress so he stayed hidden as well he could. "Rurik please explain why the child is crying again. Child it's ok we are here to help. What is your name? I'll explain what I found later. I think all this information will overwhelm her. It's already overwhelming me. I think we found a place to sleep by the way."

[ChapelCanaan]

Seeing the girl's fear reaction to Caeleth, Chapel steps forward.

In his softest (but still rather deep) voice, he tries to calm her.

"It's okay wee one, I promise. She is no kin to whatever beast did this. She is our friend, and means you no harm."

Spoiler

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Persuasion: (1d20+4)[22]

If that works, I'm going to want to Lay on Hands to heal her wound.

[Hemnon]

Rurik

With a stern gaze, Rurik gave the two others a 'shut up' gaze and waved Caeleth's hand back... and restrained himself from kicking the goblin halfway to the moon for being quite an annoying Blabbermouth.

"Shush, Lass, this is Caeleth, she is a girl, not a man. I'm sure your Pa always taught you to treat others with an open mind, am i right? Will you let her at least heal your leg if it's hurt? SHe's one of them druid-folk after all. A real Nature-friend, not a mean evil demon, like the one you described. Otherwise my good paladin-friend here can heal you." Rurik said to the little girl, Mostly just ignoring the others are somewhat regretting calling them all over and swamp the poor girl with unknown faces.

[Kyrrh]

Caeleth lets Chapel take over and steps back towards Stephanie, filling her in. "There are two more little girls hiding in a treehouse in the woods somewhere, terrified of the 'horned man' and a pack of wolves and goblins who must have torn apart the livestock. We have to get them all to Oshawan Falls and safety as soon as possible."

[Devonkm]

At the soft words from Rurik, she slowly stops sobbing and turns her head so Caeleth can only see one eye of the little girl. She looks at her for a second, hides again, and after a moment turns to study her longer this time.

After a long moment, she holds her injured leg out towards Caeleth. "My mommy is a Druid too. She helped make our glowing fence."

[Kyrrh]

Relieved, Caeleth murmurs a few arcane words. "Now," she says. "Tell me your name, and tell me where we can find Violet and Lilly."

Spoiler: Healing Word

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I cast Healing Word to heal (1d4+2)[6] damage. I have one spell slot left.

[Devonkm]

"My name is Rose." The little girl say, "My sister and Cousin are in the tree fort."

She looks at the once wounded leg and smiles. "Wow! You are like my mom!"

She looks at Kurik. "Can you put me down? I will show you where they are." Rose doesn't wait for Kurik to put her down and climbs down.

Taking Caeleth in one hand and Kurik in the other, she begins to pull them towards the grove in the center.

"I hope you can help my family. I bet you can. You remind me of my cousins parents. They were adventurers."

[Hemnon]

Rurik

Rurik let Rose down the minute she asked for it and lightly followed along with Caeleth as the two of them were dragged along by the small human girl. He lighted eyed sideways at Caeleth and waggled his eyebrows in a rather... not-fitting moment kind of Joke that clearly indicated 'seems like we got a little one to take care of!', but without any words and quickly returned his focus to the task at hand.

[ChapelCanaan]

Chapel preemptively dons his helmet- between the events of the night before, the scene behind them at the farm, and heading further into the unknown, his soldier instincts are all but thrumming, the silence of the surrounding pastoral setting ominously deafening.

He follows, staying close, off to the side and a little behind Caeleth, glaive perched on his shoulder, hand relaxed but ready. He keeps his senses trained on the grove ahead and the land spilling out to either side.

Spoiler: Perception Roll

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Perception (1d20+3)[16]

[Devonkm]

The silence of the farm lies in stark contrast to the now chattering little Rose. Chapel continues to keep a sharp eye out and does not see anything of a dangerous nature. As they walk down the hard packed path, Chapel does see the imprints of many little feet in the less traveled grounds that fringe the walkway. Footprints very similar to their companion Blastigar. There are also large prints of a predictor of some kind along with them.

Other than that, there is not much he preceives.

As Rose leads them into the small Glenn of massive trees, she leads the party through a thick tangle of shrubs, bushes and vines. It take s the larger members of the party a few minutes to navigate the tangled grounds.

"Heyyyyyy" Rose yells, looking straight up the trunk of a tree that would take 6 to 8 Chapels to complete the full width around. "Hheeeeeyyyyyy! Lillyyyyyy! Lower the ladder. I'm back with help already. I told you we'd be fine. We can go to your house until they find Pa and mom!"

As the party looks up, it is nearly impossible to see what she is calling up to,

Spoiler: DC

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if you want to roll, the DC is 17 to spot the treefort

until a moment later, what looks like branches swings opened, and a rope ladder with what looks like living ivy for ropes and Living small oak trees for ladder rungs falls down in front of the party.

The party looks down at Rose, who can tell how hard you were all looking, and struggling to see, and is beaming with pride. "Pa says when they first built this farm, he had mom grow this as a place for pa to scare off the mean old creatures that would eat our sheet. Now it's just a tree fort. There is enough room for all of you I'm sure! Come on"

And with that she scurries up the rope with a practiced ease.

Spoiler: Exhaustion

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it is now around half way to mid day. In the next few hours, you will all have 1 point of exhaustion.

[Devonkm]

Retcon: for the sake of brevity, Rose eventually saw Blastigar, but only after she took Caeleth and Ruriks hand. Feeling more secure, and with them calling her down, she accepted it more easily then seeing Caeleth for the first time.

[Kyrrh]

"Somebody else go first," Caeleth says under her breath. "I don't want to traumatize the poor things. If that fort is as big as Rose makes it sound, it might be the perfect place to hunker down and rest for a while."

[Hemnon]

Rurik

Rurik stiffled a yawn and just grabbed at that ropeladder and went up first, making sure to keep a firm grasp on that ladder as to not fall off.

[Kyrrh]

Caeleth follows, figuring that she can't possibly be scarier than a bearded, booming dwarf wielding an enormous hammer.

[Illven]

Stephanie points right up to the treehouse

You did a good job making solid objects in front of it and stuff, but the bark color is off by a decent amount, it's far too sharp a change for it to be much good at hiding. Um... You know.... in the future. She stops when she realizes what she is saying to a child that probably lost their parents.

[Devonkm]

As the group enters the tree fort one by one they are pleasantly surprised by its size. It looks to have been constructed using druidic magic to incorporate living plant matter into the structure. It appears to have been constructed as 1 large donut shaped room that wraps around the entire length of the tree. It is about 4 feet wide all said, and it is quickly apparent that the room was not designed for 5 adults and 3 children. It will be cramped, but if the party decides to bed down here it could be done (It will be a snuggle kind of fit.)

Rose is excited to introduce the party, and Lilly (7) and Violet (8) seem less terrified then Rose was at seeing Blastigar and Caeleth. What nervousness they did have is quickly dispelled by Rose. "I didn't let them look outside last night... I'm the oldest and I told them not to look." Rose whispers both sadly and proudly at the same time.

As you look around the room, you can see various open air windows in the structure, and the trees branches that heavily obscure the tree house. Some of the tree branches you see had been cut many years ago to not impeded the view, but it seems that this forts use as a hunting nest has not been used for that purpose in many years. With all the new growth, it makes for a better hiding spot, and a worse place to fire an arrow.

From this location, you can easily see the courtyard between the barn and the 2 houses, with the simple effort of moving some branches out of the way. You can see the animal pens, where the slaughter of the animals in the pens took place. As you look out of the other windows to get a 360 degree view, there are other animal pens, including horses, cows, and a dog on the other side of grove that were all ripped apart. It must have been a terrifying sight/sounds for these girls, but based on how they are acting, you can guess they do not fully understand what happened.

With the girls visibly feeling safer, yawns start to crack and one by one, they nod off quickly. Rose falls asleep with her head on Caeleth's lap, and holding Rurik's hand tightly, seeming not willing to let go of her new found security.

Spoiler: Time/Action

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What do you as a group/solo wish to do? It is about 10-11 AM right now. you have around 1 hour until exhaustion hits. Based on the time of year, and where you are on the earth's meridian, you know it will not have much light left (maybe 2-4 hours) if you take a full rest, less if you take watches.

[zylodrizzt]

Blastigar Kaboom Spoiler: statistics Show ac:15 Hp: 8 Effects: none Passive perception:14 Any other useful statistics I should provide? When Blastigar meets rose for the first time he is a bit startled. uh... I.... I'm sorry I stayed hidden. I heard something about green men. Im green. I was frightened of frightening you further. My name name is Blastigar but you may call me by my surname kaboom. You may enjoy that better or maybe blast for short." When he sees the tree fort from the ground"What a wonderful hiding spot. Shame it's up so high. Seen too many fatal falls in my short life of 14. Steph leave the kid alone. Believe me most people aren't as observant as you are." When he meets the other 2 children "I'll just stay out of the way. I'm sorry to inconvienience you. It's lovely to meet you both" After rose mentions she didn't let them look. "You such a clever girl. Much braver then I. Be proud of yourself. I am. Whelp we need sleep so I think a watch is in order. I'll take a watch after it turns dark. Does the door have a lock?" If there is a lock Blastigar eats a small unidentifiable rations. Maybe mushrooms? He then crawls into a small space puts his back against the wall. Snuggles up to "big boom". Did he whisper "my precious"? Tells everyone good night and Falls asleep.

[Devonkm]

Retcon Conversation with Blastigar: When Blastigar tells Rose about overhearing green men, she tells him that he looks like the things that came with the man with horns, and were riding big dog looking things. They were the ones that killed the animals and carried others off. They left through the front gate, but her parents never left. Neither did the man with horns.

There is no lock to the door. Its a hinged swinging upwards, with the rope ladder coiled up next to it.

[Hemnon]

Rurik

As the talk of sleeping-plans and whatnot, Rurik had already sat down and leant back against one of the wooden walls, snoring lightly with him big Adamantine Warhammer resting next to himself and head limply swung forward as he took that power-nap.

[Illven]

I'm not that observant. Stephanie protests self deprecatingly.

Before staying up on the watch as the rest of party sleeps.

[ChapelCanaan]

Chapel smiles warmly at the children, but both his armor and sleep deprivation are weighing heavily on him. Without even bothering to remove the plate, he sits directly on top of the trap door, his back against the wall, and his head slowly falls back. The paladin promptly drifts off, his snores like distant rockfall.

[Kyrrh]

Caeleth passes out almost instantly.

[Devonkm]

The long rest goes off without a hitch. Stephanie stays awake despite her exhaustion to keep an eye on the groups safety. Over the 8 hours, Stephanie listens to the children occasionally whimper in their sleeps but it quickly subsides.

The soft snoring of an old soldier and a young dwarf sounds rhythmic and entertaining for a while, and almost makes Stephanie nod off for awhile, but only momentarily.

With dusk only a few hours off, everyone starts to groggily wake up, feeling refreshed, having all health and spell spots back.

What would you like to do now?

[Kyrrh]

Caeleth stretches and frowns at the dimming light. "How far is it from her to Oshawan Falls?"

[Devonkm]

Violet perks up right away. "When we come here for a visit, it takes less time then between lunch and dinner." She looks northward, and then rubs her stomach.

"I'm hungry... We haven't eaten in awhile. Can we get some food and go home." says Violet.

Lilly rubs her stomach as well to silence a grumble. "I'm hungry too." she says, with a slight lisp from some missing baby teeth. "Where are mom and pa Rose?"

Rose pats her sister on the shoulder and looks to Caeleth and Rurik hopefully for an answer. "Maybe they went to Oshawan falls too?"


"Why would they leave us here?" both Lilly and Violet say together as one voice. Lilly looks about ready to cry.

"I wanna go home!" Violet says, fighting back tears and stomping her foot.